April 07, 2002 | 12:35 PM

Yesterday Jenn and I went to see Waydowntown, a film about a bet between four office workers concerning which one of them can stay inside the longest. The film takes place in Calgary, and the entire downtown of Calgary is connected by walkways from one building to the other, making it very easy to live without ever venturing into the outdoors. The film begins on day 24 of their bet.

The exploration of the soul sucking nature of corporations has become one of the great postmodern themes�what love was to the romantic period, what racial identity was to the Harlem renaissance, what the vast expanse of the American spirit was to the Beat Generation-- the vacuous nature of capitalistic pop culture has become to writers and filmmakers of the 1980�s through the new millennium. It began with Jay McInereny and Brett Easton Ellis, and continued with Douglas Coupland and Nick Hornby. It can be found in Barbara Ehrenreich�s exposes and Micheal Moore�s populist rants. The theme delights angry movie goers in films like American Beauty and Office Space and now Waydowntown (which has the distinction of being Canadian and actually was made at the end of the big boom in 2000�pretty timely.)

Please do not assume that I am comparing the artistic merit of someone like William Blake to Mr. American Psycho�s sickeningly enjoyable but questionable oeuvre. I�m just saying that our society can�t seem to get enough of this theme. Preoccupation with The Evil Capitalist Empire for which we all toil has supplanted personal exploartions of truth and desire and even God. We don�t know who we are or what we want, but we sure as hell know what we don�t want�we don�t want to be stuck in a 3X5 cubicle being screamsed at about TPS reports by four different bosses.

At the end of Waydowntown,the audience clapped and cheered. Can you guess where most of those people will be venturing to work on Monday? We all know that working at XYZ company drains our hearts and minds and ultimately turns us against our own ethical sensibilities. Tom, a character in the film states,

A fish smells from the head down. I am the tail. Am I beginning to smell?

If people have to spend (over) forty hours a week at their soul sucking job, what is the appeal of watching or reading about some other poor schlub doing the same thing? In these films and books, the protagonist almost always gets fed up, screams at the boss, or wreaks some other kind of havoc on the company which has stolen years from his life. At this point the audience cheers. It is catharsis. Wish fulfillment.

I am sure that there are some people who are happy with their corporate jobs. You read about them occasionally in magazines like Forbes. But personally, I don�t know anyone who works for XYZ corp. and likes what they do. At the absolute best, they see it as a means to an end�a way to pay the bills while they do something else, or a step on the ladder towards a higher salary and the possibility of having creative power. At the worst, the 9-5 bit overcomes people�s lives and sucks them dry.

I swore when I got laid off from The Stupid Company in late October of 2000 that I would never ever work for corporate America again. And I haven�t yet. I�ll go into this a lot more in the SAGA later on. When I was downsized, I made a list of what I would and would not accept in a new position. I made choices and I didn�t deviate from them. It was very very scary to do. A lot of people tried to talk me out of being so picky. After all, who was I? A former drone at a marketing research firm. Who the fuck was I to make any demands about what I considered correct and incorrect workplace policy? So many times I almost caved and went for that decent paying but shiteating XYZ corp job. But I am sooooo glad I held out. In the week before my unemployment insurance ran out, I got an offer from a university to work with reform minded people doing positive work that actually benefits humankind. And I got my own office and free college tuition to boot. I work there and am reasonably happy and am treated well.

This experience was the first time I ever held my own ground and demanded what I wanted from the world. It was the first time I had doors shut in my face over and over and over again and I refused to give in because I knew I was right.

I am now attempting to be that fearless in my personal life.

People don�t think that they are worth enough. They don�t give themselves enough credit. They take whatever comes along. They don�t make any choices. And that�s why they are miserable and depressed.

I freely admit to doing this myself as well. I am making a concerted effort to NOT do it anymore.

We can all make choices. We can all have exactly the kinds of lives that we want to have. We just have to have the courage.

By the way, Waydowntown has to be one of the absolute funniest fucking movies I have ever seen in my life. I highly recommend it.

Will return to SAGA entries tomorrow.